The Battle of Athens (sometimes called the McMinn County War) was a citizen rebellion in Athens and Etowah, Tennessee, United States, against the corrupt local government, which took place on August 1 and 2, 1946. The citizens, including around 50 to 200 World War II veterans, accused the local officials of predatory policing, police brutality, political corruption, and voter intimidation.
Background
In 1936, the E. H. Crump political machine, based in Memphis, controlled much of Tennessee and its influence extended to McMinn County with the introduction of Paul Cantrell, the Democratic candidate for sheriff. Cantrell, who came from a wealthy and influential family in nearby Etowah, tied his campaign closely to the popularity of the Roosevelt administration. Cantrell won over his Republican opponent in what came to be known as the "vote grab of 1936". Paul Cantrell was re-elected sheriff in the 1938 and 1940 elections, and was elected to the state senate in 1942 and 1944, while his former deputy Pat Mansfield was elected sheriff to take his place. In 1941, a state law reduced political opposition to Crump's officials by decreasing the number of voting precincts from 23 to 12 and reducing the number of justices of the peace from fourteen to seven (including four "Cantrell men"). The sheriff and his deputies were paid under a fee system, whereby they received money for every person they booked, incarcerated, and released. Tourists and travelers were targeted because of this fee system. Buses passing through the county were often pulled over, and passengers were randomly ticketed for drunkenness, regardless of their intoxicated state. Between 1936 and 1946, these fees amounted to almost $300,000 (equivalent to $3,700,000 as of 2024).
Cantrell engaged in electoral fraud, achieved primarily by intimidating voters who voted against him, manipulating the poll tax and allowing ineligible people to vote; it was common for votes from dead voters to be counted also. The U.S. Department of Justice had investigated allegations of electoral fraud in McMinn County in 1940, 1942, and 1944, but without resolution. The political problems were further entrenched by economic corruption of political figures, who enabled gambling, bootlegging, and other illegal activity. Ex-convicts were often appointed as deputies as most of the county's young men were off fighting World War II. These deputies furthered the political machinations, exerting control over the citizens of the county. Control also extended to the newspapers and schools: when asked if the local newspaper, The Daily Post Athenian, supported the GIs, veteran Bill White replied: "No, they didn't help us none." White elaborated: "[Pat] Mansfield had complete control of everything, schools and everything else. You couldn't even get hired as a schoolteacher without their okay, or any other job."
During the war, two servicemen on leave were shot and killed by Cantrell supporters. Servicemen from McMinn County heard of what was going on and were anxious to return home and do something about it. According to a contemporaneous article by Theodore H. White in Harper's Magazine, one veteran, Ralph Duggan, who had served in the Pacific in the Navy and became a leading lawyer postwar, "thought a lot more about McMinn County than he did about the Japs. If democracy was good enough to put on the Germans and the Japs, it was good enough for McMinn County, too!"
When McMinn County's GIs were demobilized and returned home, they were targeted by the deputies. One GI reported: "A lot of boys getting discharged [were] getting the mustering out pay. Well, deputies running around four or five at a time grapping [sic] up every GI they could find and trying to get that money off of them, they were fee grabbers, they wasn't on a salary back then."
In the August 1946 election, Paul Cantrell ran again for sheriff, while Pat Mansfield ran for the State Senate seat. Stephen Byrum, a local historian, speculates that the motive for this switch was an attempt to spread the graft. White, meanwhile, claims the reason for the swap was because they thought Cantrell stood a better chance running against the GIs. The GIs were more hostile towards Sheriff Mansfield and his deputies rather than against Cantrell, whose period as sheriff had been relatively benign.
McMinn County had around 3,000 returning military veterans, almost 10 percent of the county's population. Some of the returning veterans resolved to challenge Cantrell's political control by fielding their own nonpartisan candidates and working for a fraud-free election. A veterans-only meeting was called in May 1946, and a non-partisan slate of candidates was selected. White described the veterans' motivation:
There were several beer joints and honky-tonks around Athens; we were pretty wild; we started having trouble with the law enforcement at that time because they started making a habit of picking up GIs and fining them heavily for most anything—they were kind of making a racket out of it. After long hard years of service—most of us were hard-core veterans of World War II—we were used to drinking our liquor and our beer without being molested. When these things happened, the GIs got madder—the more GIs they arrested, the more they beat up, the madder we got ...
GI Non-Partisan League members were careful to ensure their list of candidates matched the county's electoral demographics, choosing three Republicans and two Democrats. A respected and decorated veteran of the North African campaign, Knox Henry, ran against Cantrell.
Large contributions from local businesspeople well funded the GIs' campaign, although many of McMinn County's citizens believed the election would still be rigged. The veterans capitalized on this belief with the slogan "Your Vote Will Be Counted As Cast".
Well aware of Sheriff Mansfield and his associates' methods, a "fightin' bunch" was organized by White "to keep the thugs from beating up GIs and keep them from taking the election." White created his organization carefully; he later recalled: "I got out and started organizing with a bunch of GIs. Well spirits—I learned that you get the poor boys out of poor families, and the ones that was frontline warriors that's done fighting and didn't care to bust a cap on you. I learned to do that. So that's what I picked. I had thirty men and ... I took what mustering out pay I got and bought pistols. And some of them had pistols. I had thirty men organized". As a part of the election, Sheriff Mansfield hired more than 200 deputies, most from neighboring counties and some from out of state, for $50 a day (equivalent to $826 in 2025).
Initial confrontations
Water Works polling place
The county election polls opened on August 1, 1946. Normally, there would be about 15 patrolmen on duty for the precincts, but about 200 armed deputies were on patrol for the election, many of them from other counties and states. In Etowah, a GI poll watcher requested that the ballot box be opened and certified as empty. Although he was legally allowed to make the request, he was arrested and taken to jail. In Athens, Walter Ellis protested irregularities in the election and was also arrested and charged with what was explained to him as a "federal offense".
Around 3:00 pm, C.M. "Windy" Wise, a patrolman, prevented an elderly African-American farmer, Tom Gillespie, from casting his ballot at the Athens Water Works polling place. When Gillespie and a GI poll watcher objected, Wise struck Gillespie with brass knuckles, which caused Gillespie to drop his ballot and run from the deputy. Wise then pulled his pistol and shot Gillespie in the back. Gillespie survived the shooting and was taken to jail. Later, Wise was the only person to face charges from the events of August 1–2, 1946. He was sentenced to three years in prison, but only served one year before being paroled.
Response
GIs gathered in front of L. L. Shaefer's store, which was used as an office by campaign manager Jim Buttram. Buttram had telegraphed Governor McCord in Nashville and U.S. Attorney General Tom Clark, asking for help in ensuring a lawful election, but received no response. When the group learned that Sheriff Mansfield had sent armed guards to all polling places, they convened at the Essankay Garage, where they decided to arm themselves.
Sheriff Mansfield arrived at the Water Works and ordered the poll closed. In the commotion that followed, Wise and Karl Nell, the deputies inside the Water Works, took two poll watchers, Charles Scott and Ed Vestal, captive. By one account, Scott and Vestal jumped through a glass window and fled to the safety of the crowd while Wise followed behind. By another account, there was a guns-drawn confrontation between Buttram, who was accompanied by Scott's father, and Sheriff Mansfield. A third account argues that when Neal Esminger from the Daily Post-Athenian showed up to get a vote count, his arrival was a distraction that allowed Scott and Vestal to break through a door to escape. In any case, the escape was followed by gunfire, which sent the crowd diving for cover.
Someone in the crowd yelled, "Let's go get our guns", causing the crowd to head for the Essankay Garage. Deputy Chief Boe Dunn took the two deputies and the ballot box to the jail. Two other deputies were dispatched to arrest Scott and Vestal. These deputies were disarmed and detained by the GIs, as were a set of reinforcements. Otto Kennedy, GI advisor, Republican Election Commissioner, and Republican Party Chairman, asked White what he was going to do; White said, "I don't know Otto; we might just kill them." According to White, Kennedy grew alarmed and announced, "Oh Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord! No! I'm not having nothing else to do with this. Me and my brother and son-in-law is leaving here." Lones Selber in American Heritage magazine says Kennedy "left, vowing to have no part in murder." The crowd and most GIs left. The remaining GIs took the seven deputies-turned-hostages to a wooded area ten miles from Athens, stripped them, tied them to trees, and beat them.
Twelfth precinct polling place
At the twelfth precinct, the GI poll watchers were Bob Hairrell and Leslie Doolie. Mansfield man Minus Wilburn commanded the polling place. Wilburn tried to allow a young woman, whom Hairrell believed was underage, to vote. She had no poll tax receipt and was not listed in the voter registration. Hairrell grabbed Wilburn's wrist when he tried to deposit the ballot in the box. Wilburn struck Hairrell on the head with a blackjack and kicked him in the face. Wilburn closed the precinct and took the GIs and ballot box across the street to the jail. Hairrell was brutally beaten and taken to the hospital.
In response to taunts from the deputies and the events of the day, White told his lieutenant, Edsel Underwood, to take five or six men and break into the National Guard Armory to obtain weapons. The GIs took the front door keys from the caretaker and entered the building. They then armed themselves with 70 rifles, two Thompson submachine guns, and ammunition. Lones Selber says White went for the guns himself. White then distributed the rifles and a bandoleer of ammo to each of the 60 GIs.
Polls closing
As the polls closed and counting began (minus the three boxes taken to the jail), the GI-backed candidates had a three-to-one lead. When the GIs heard the deputies had taken the ballot boxes to the jail, White exclaimed, "Boy, they doing something. I'm glad they done that. Now all we got to do is whip on the jail."
Recognizing that they had broken the law and that Cantrell would likely receive reinforcements in the morning, the GIs felt the need to resolve the situation quickly. The deputies knew little of battle tactics, but the GIs knew them well. By taking up positions on the second floor of a bank across the street, the GIs were able to return fire on the jail from above.
By 9:00 pm, Paul Cantrell, Pat Mansfield, George Woods (Speaker of the State House of Representatives and Secretary of the McMinn County Election Commission), and about 50 deputies were in the jail, allegedly rummaging through the ballot boxes. Woods and Mansfield constituted a majority of the election commission and could therefore certify and validate the count from within the jail.